Saffron Walden Town FC 1 - Walsham Le Willows 4

The Bloods conceded four second half goals after taking the lead in a game to forget for the home boys.
Reported by James Moloney

Thurlow Nunn Premier Division

Saturday, 06 January 2018

Saffron Walden Town 1

Walsham le Willows 4

The Bloods conceded four second half goals after taking the lead in a game to forget for the home boys.

The first chance for the hosts came 5 minutes in when James Crane managed to force a save out of Walsham goalkeeper Tom Coombe.

Coombe was put to the test again five minutes later to deny Julian Simon-Parsons’ long range effort after a dangerous looking run just outside the area.

Most of the away team’s chances in the first half came from long range efforts on the edge of O’Sullivan’s box. However, nothing really came from any of them.

Midway through the half, striker Charlie Portway found himself on the end of a perfectly weighted through ball from the alert James Crane, but his shot was just tipped to the side by the outstretched goalkeeper.

Perhaps the chance of the half came ten minutes before half time. Joe Maybanks dribbled his way down the right hand side, managing to put a low, driven cross across the goalmouth, missing Portway but reaching Crane who could only put it straight at the keeper. The rebound hit
Crane and went out for a goal kick.

The game started to get a bit heated towards the end of the half. Walsham’s captain, Craig Nurse, dangerously slid into Simon-Parsons having already been booked. But he was let off by the referee despite the home fans’ clear unrest.

Moments later, James Crane was unfairly brought down near the corner flag by a sliding challenge from the goalkeeper. The keeper was shown a yellow card, but would’ve considered himself lucky to have gotten away without worse.

The first goal of the game came in the 55th minute in the Bloods’ favour. A Walden corner led to a goal line scramble which saw the ball poked home by Connor Molloy.

However, Walsham were quick to come back and moments later they grabbed an equaliser. Craig Nurse’s free kick just outside the box found its way through the wall, deceiving O’Sullivan.

The away side put themselves ahead in the 71st minute. A forward was able to slot the ball into the bottom right corner from the centre of the box.

With five minutes to go Walden’s problems grew after a mistake at the back led to a third goal for Walsham. The attacker was able latch onto the ball over on the left of the box and tucked it away calmly.

Walsham put Walden out of their misery in the 71st minute. An away attacker bombed down the right wing, dribbled his way across the byline and placed it into the bottom left corner.